Language And Personality

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A friend of mine[0] told me of the time he had one of his cars[1] in the workshop and the mechanic dropped a spanner. It bounced off the fender, clattering to the floor, and the mechanic quickly picked it up, gave the fender a wipe, and said (in German): "No harm done."

Victor drew himself up to his not inconsiderable height (six foot two?) and said (in German): "That is not for you to say!"

Then he thought to himself ... "I would never have said that in English".

And I can believe that ... Victor was a gentle, jovial soul, and speaking sharply to a mechanic just didn't seem like him. But it started in him a train of thought.

"I wonder" ... thought Victor ... "whether I behave differently when I'm thinking in German. I wonder if my personality changes when I change language."

So he started an investigation.

Firstly he found the US military standardised personality test. Then he translated it into German, discarding a small number of questions that didn't seem to make sense in translation. So now he had a standardised personality test in both English and German.

Next he found some self-identified bi-lingual English/German speakers, and asked each whether they considered English or German as their primary language. He divided them into four groups:

To those in group A he administered the test in English, and to those in group B he administered the test in German.

Then he waited three weeks, and gave each person the other test.

So each person took the test in English and German, in some order, and randomly according to what they though of as their primary language.

With me so far?

Then he looked for differences in the results.

As I say, sadly I don't have the data, so I'm relying on the story as Victor told it to me, but it was fascinating.

Well, have to say I didn't expect that.

But then it turns out that there are two kinds of bilingualism:

(Yes, I listed three ... I'm going to ignore the last one)

What's the difference?

Let me start by saying that it's genuinely contentious ... some people say the distinction doesn't exist, others say that it has hints of linguistic relativity, linguistic determinism, linguistic colonialism, and other, less savoury views. However ...

Victor found that about half his subjects showed a clear and measureable shift in personality when changing language, and I find that fascinating. I only wish I had the actual data, and permission to publish.

Added later ...

I should say that I've exerienced this. Any time Rachel[5] and I arrive in Paris, I visibly see her personality shift. It's small, it's subtle, but it's definitely there. It's in the little shoulder shimmy that she does as we walk through Gare du Nord ...


Some references:


[0] Victor Lane ... lovely man. He died in 2014 and I still find myself thinking of him occasionally.

[1] Victor collected classic cars. One of them was the car in the film: The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain[2][3], and it's actually Victor driving the car in the early long shot.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Englishman_Who_Went_up_a_Hill_but_Came_down_a_Mountain

[3] As is so often the case, the book[4] is actually better ...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Englishman_Who_Went_up_a_Hill_but_Came_down_a_Mountain_%28novel%29

[5] https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/RachelWright.html?ZimExpt


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